Gulf Fritillary

You did well on the butterfly in harsh light.  Personally, I’d crop the bottom above the missing chunk of grass, just below the blue blossom.  Maybe a little off the right, too, since the “flow” is up and left, and you could keep the aspect ratio that fits the subject. I’d also try to tame some of the bg bright spots.  I shoot a lot of butterflies, and I’ll drive myself crazy with stuff like that, (and it’s not a long drive!). What I’d probably try is to make a duplicate layer, select the Frit, (and maybe the grass blade,) create a layer mask hiding the selection, change that layer to a “multiply” layer, and drop the opacity to 20-30%. I’m certainly no PS pro, but fumbling around, that’s a process that I use quite a bit in situations like this.  Sometimes it works, lol.

The butterfly looks nice, and you got a fine fully open (wings flat) pose. Craig makes some good post-proceeding suggestions, though I’d try local adjustments in Lightroom to reduce the background highlights.

Craig Lipski wrote:You did well on the butterfly in harsh light.  Personally, I’d crop the bottom above the missing chunk of grass, just below the blue blossom.  Maybe a little off the right, too, since the “flow” is up and left, and you could keep the aspect ratio that fits the subject. I’d also try to tame some of the bg bright spots.  I shoot a lot of butterflies, and I’ll drive myself crazy with stuff like that, (and it’s not a long drive!). What I’d probably try is to make a duplicate layer, select the Frit, (and maybe the grass blade,) create a layer mask hiding the selection, change that layer to a “multiply” layer, and drop the opacity to 20-30%. I’m certainly no PS pro, but fumbling around, that’s a process that I use quite a bit in situations like this.  Sometimes it works, lol.

Thanks for the comments, Craig. I do like your idea about the cropping.

Regarding the bright spots in the BG, I do what you suggested, but using an alternate method. I select the BG and then use Viveza 2 or any of the brightness/contrast/saturation tools in PS to tone down the BG. I do agree with you in that the BG is a little too bright and contrasty.

Love the butterfly - colorful, open and sharp. Agree with others on background. My PS skills are minimal, so I try to work with the background during capture. I carry a shade with me and a clip that attaches it to the tripod to shade the subject as well as the BG. Sometimes, I can't shade the background completely. The downside is slower shutter speeds. Come spring, I will be working towards a better contraption that shades the subject as well as BG.
Ravi

Nice work Bruce, though the BG is a bit busy, you should be able to use something like f8-10 range and still have enough DOF to cover the wings.